Door operator for elevators



Sept. 28, 1937.-

H. H. VANDERZEE DOOR OPERATOR FOR ELEVATORS Filed March 12, 1956 u w m r N Q M w d m N w m m k H m H W J m H n w WAAAKWAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAW x AA A A -I- WITNESSES:

Patented Sept. 28, 1937 PATENT OFFICE noon OPERATOR Fon ELEVATORS Harry Herbert Vanderzee, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Elevator Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application March 12, 1936, Serial No. 68,425

7 Claims.

My invention relates to door operators for elevators and more particularly to door operators for simultaneously opening and closing the elevator car door and the corresponding hatchway door when the car stops at a floor landing.

In many elevator systems, particularly those for apartment houses, where slow speed power operation is desired, it is the practice to provide power operated doors for the hatchway and the car. In many of these systems, the car door is power driven by a motor mounted on the roof of the car, and its movement is made to effect a corresponding movement of the hatchway door opposite which the car is stopped. This is usually accomplished by providing a projecting arm on the car door which engages a cooperating projecting member on the hatchway door and thereby .pulls the hatchway door with it when it is closed or opened.

Where projecting door operating members are used, there is always the danger of the projecting members getting out of alinement and striking each other or some part of the elevator when the car is running up or down the hatchway. In view of this, the prior art has provided for hingedly mounting the projecting arm on the car so that it may be forcibly retracted to an inner position while thecar is running. However, this construction is not only expensive but it is not entirely safe and it requires additional mechanism for holding the .retracted arm in its retracted position and for moving it to its operative position when the doors are to be opened. The real difiicultyin making projecting arm connections between the hatchway doors and the car door is that sooner or later one of .thedoors gets out of position due to some faulty operation and, as the car approaches a floor landing, thetwo projecting members fail to'mesh and a smash-up occurs.

Therefore, it is an object of my invention to provide a door operator having projecting members which will not cause any damage even if they fail to mesh as the car approaches a stop at a floor.

It is also an object of my invention to provide a door, operator which shall be simple and inexpensiveto construct, operate and maintain.

Another object is to provide a door operator in which the cooperating arms on the hatchway 50 doors and the car door may remain constantly in their normal position without causing any damage to each other or to the car.

For :a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing,..in which 1 I a I Figure 1 is a top plan View of a portion of a hatchway and a car with the walls broken away to show the car door and the hatchway door at one of the landings;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged top plan view of the door 5 operator connections between the car door and the hatchway door shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view in front elevation of the portion of the door operator attached to the hatchway door; and j 10 Fig. 4 is a view taken along the line IVIV of Fig. 3 with a view added thereto of that portion of the door operator shown in Fig. 1 as attached to the car door.

Referring more particularly to the drawing I 15 have illustrated a section of an elevator hatchway having a front wall I and side walls 2 and 3. The section of the hatchway is taken at a floor landing and any suitable door such as a single door a two speed door or a center opening door may be 20 provided in the hatchway at the landing. For illustration I have shown a door 4 as disposed across the doorway 5 for the landing of the hatchway. The other landings (not shown) may be provided with a door of the same type or any 25 other suitable type. The door 4 may be of the usual type which will slide back to an open position as shown by the dotted lines and it may be suspended upon rollers by means of an overhead track (not shown) in the usual manner. 30

A car 6 is shown as disposed in the hatchway in a position opposite the hatchway door 4 and as having :a front wall I and side walls 8 and 9. The car is provided with a car door H which may be suspended from an overhead track (not shown) in the usual manner so that it may slide or be moved away from the doorway of the car. A wall [2 opposite the wall 1, but separated therefrom, is provided for covering the car door when it is in its open position, as shown by the dotted lines I3. The car door may be power driven through 'a lever -I 5 (only .a small portion of which is shown) operated by a door motor on the roof of the car (not shown). Inasmuch as car door levers and motors for operating them are old and well known, no 45 detailed showing thereof has been made.

With the construction shown, if the door lever l5 secured to the car door by a'pivot I6 is moved to the left, it will slide the car door to its open position as shown by the dotted lines to permit passengers to enter or leave the car.

The opening of the car door when the car stops at a landing will also efiect the simultaneous opening of the hatchway door at that landing. This is accomplished by mounting a projecting member such as an arm or vane l8 on the outer face of the car door in position to mesh with a notch ill in a cooperating vane or block mounted in a horizontal position on the hatchway door 4 when the car door is opposite the hatchway door. When the car door is moved to its open position by its lever IS, the vane or arm l8disposed in the notch l9 engages the side of the notch and thereby exerts pressure on the block 20 which pulls the hatchway door open with the car door. When the car door is moved toward its closed po sition, the vane and the block operate to close the hatchway door. Where there are a plurality of hatchway doors, each one should be provided with a horizontally disposed block 20, so that when the car comes to rest at any landing and opens its car door, the hatchway door at that landing will also be simultaneously pulled to its open position. As shown, the door sill 2| for the car door is provided with a notched or cut-away section 22 to ensure it clearing the blocks 20 on the hatchway doors as the car is operated up or down the shaft. 7

In practicing my invention, the block 20 on the hatchway door s constructed of resilient material, preferably of rubber. The block is provided with an enlarged base portion 23 which is held against the door by a clamping plate 24. The clamping plate is maintained in position by four clamping bolts 25 which pass through the plate, the block base 23, a plurality of shims 26, the wall 21 of the door 4 and into a suitable metal holding block 28 on the inside of the door. The shims permit adjustment of the block to the correct position for cooperation with the Vane i8 of the car door. The rubber block should have considerable length in a horizontal direction so as to provide a moment of inertia capable of preventing undue deflection when it is engaged by the driving vane on the car door. With this construction, the opening of the hatchway door by the vane on the car door will be effective. The vertical dimension of the rubber block, however, should be small so that it will deflectreadily if the vane ,contacts the block in a position other than in proper mesh with the notch or slot [9, for instance, as shown by the dotted lines I8a in Fig. 2. Also, the vertical dimensions of the block should be small so that if the car should sway at any time to such a position that it will strike the block when traveling up or down, the thin vertical. section of the block will permit it to deflect out of the path of the car without causing any damage thereto.

'As an example of a satisfactory door operator for a normal elevator installation in an apartment house, the door operator may be constructed with its horizontal notched portion having a length of approximately 4 inches, and extending outwardly from its base for a distance of approximately 2%; inches. The vertical dimension of the, horizontal face portion of the block may be in the neighborhood of of an inch. The base of the block may be approximately 5% inches by 2 inches by of an inch. The notch IS in the rubber block should be approximately 1 inch deep by 1 inch wide. The vane 18 disposed on the car door for engaging the block may be of any suitable metal and of any suitable dimensions which will cause it to enter the notch l9 of the rubber blockand mesh therewith when the car arrives opposite the hatchway door. The dimensions of the block given are supplied merely as an example and any elevatorengineer should be able, after reading this description, to. determine the most desirable horizontal and vertical dimensions of the rubber block necessary to effect the operation of the hatchway door but not cause damage if the projecting members on the car door and the hatchway door fail to mesh and come into forcible engagement with each other while the car is moving up or down.

Although the block 20 is preferably made of resilient rubber, it may be made ,of any other suitable resilient material, the horizontal inertia of a considerable length of which will be sufficient to cause the hatchway door to open when the car door and the vane attached thereto are moved to their open position, but which will still be sufficiently flexible in a vertical direction to be deflected if hit by the car or the other projecting arm and thereby prevent any dangerous results from collision between such parts,

From this description, it is seen that I have provided a door operator of very simple construction and one Which may be very easily and quickly installed and which will be safe in operation.

Although I have illustrated and described only one specific embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that variations thereof and modifications therein may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an elevator having a hatchway provided with a door, a car disposed for operation in the hatchway to serve the hatchway door, a notched rubber block mounted on the hatchway door, a projecting member disposed on the car in position to mesh with the notched portion of the rubber block when the car is opposite the hatchway door, and means carried by the car for moving the projecting member laterally to engage the rubber block and thereby effect operation of the hatchway door. I

2. In a door operator for use in connection with an elevator car serving a door in a hatchway, a projecting member mounted on the door, a projecting member carried by the car in position to cooperate with the projecting member on the door, and means for actuating one of said members to move the other when they register correctly for the purpose of opening or closing the door, one of said members being constructed of resilient material having a vane with a vertical dimension sufliciently thin to permit vertical defiection Without damage and having a longitudi nal dimension sufficiently thicker than its vertical dimension to resist longitudinal deflection to cause the door to move in response to the actuation of one of said members.

3. In a door operatorfor use in connection with an elevator car serving a door in a hatch- Way, a projecting member mounted on the door, said member being constructed of resilient material having a vane of vertical dimension sufiiciently thin to permit vertical deflection without damage and having a longitudinal dimension sumciently thicker'than its vertical dimension to resist longitudinal deflection thereof, means for securing only the baseportion of the projecting member onthe door, a projecting arm carried by the car, and means for actuating the projecting arm to move the projecting member when they register correctly and thereby operate the hatchway door. r

4. In a door operator for use in connection with an elevator car serving a door in a hatchway, a projecting block for thehatchway door, said block being constructed of rubber and have ing a base portion and a vane like portion extending therefrom having its longitudinal dimension more than twice its thickness, means for clamping the base portion of the block to the hatchway door with its vane-like portion extending toward the car, a door on the car, a projecting arm carried by the car door for cooperation with the block, and means for operating the car door to move the arm and thereby efiect a corresponding operation of the block and the hatchway door when the block and the arm register correctly.

5. In an elevator comprising a car serving a plurality of doors in a hatchway, a door on the car, a projecting arm mounted on the face of the car door adjacent to the hatchway, a rubber block mounted on the face of each hatchway door in position to project toward the car door and past the outer end of the projecting arm, each block being formed of rubber with the vertical dimension of its projecting portion less than half its longitudinal dimension and having a notch in its outer edge to permit free passage of the arm through the notched portion of the block when the car moves up or down the hatchway with the doors closed, and means for operating the car door when it is opposite a hatchway door to move the arm into contact with the block and thereby effect a corresponding operation of the hatchway door.

6. In a door operator for use in connection with an elevator car serving a door in a hatchway, a projecting member mounted on the door, said member being constructed of resilient material and having a vertical dimension less than its longitudinal dimension to permit vertical deflection but resist longitudinal deflection thereof, a door sill on said car, said sill having a notch to provide clearance for the projecting arm when the car is operated up and down the hatchway, a projecting arm carried by the car, and means for actuating the projecting arm to move the projecting member when they register correctly and thereby operate the hatchway door.

7. In a door operator for use in connection with an elevator car serving a door in a hatchway, a projecting block and a cooperating projecting arm, said block being constructed of rubber and having a base portion and a vane-like portion extending therefrom having a longitudinal di-' mension more than twice its thickness, means for clamping the base portion of the block and the base portion of the projecting arm in cooperative position to the door and the car with the vanelike portion of the block extending into the hatch- Way in position to be engaged by the projecting arm, and means for operating the block and arm to effect a corresponding movement of the door.

HARRY HERBERT VANDERZEE. 

